Newest Christmas card Challenge

I'm back with two Christmas cards today using PTI's O' Tannenbaum. I just love the little Christmas tree in that set.
 

After I made this card, I decided to try the same design with Kraft as a background.

Do you have a preference for one over the other?
I am submitting this card to a new challenge I found called Christmas Cards All Year Long. The challenge is to create a Christmas card using no pattern paper. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Snowmen Tags

    Three of the little snowmen I made here are on their way to sunny Arizonia . I hope they don't melt. LOL  These are the tags I made  to accompany the presents they adorn.

    I used my 1 3/4 inch punch for the head and the Shape up snow man addittions set. The snowflake is from the stamp set Rustic Snowflake.

     The final presentation.  I hope these guys make it in one piece and the postal workers
 don't "snowman handle" them.    Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to look.

MIM: #26: Decreasing Apertures

Now that I am back in the swing of things, I created a card for this week's MIM #26: Decreasing Apertures.
I began by looking through all of my dies and paired up three that would go together: Tag # 1, the sunflower burst & circle from Limitless Labels.

      I picked Tag # 1 for two reasons.  I haven't used it even though I ordered it when it was first released, and I wanted to get a head start on my Christmas cards even though I am waiting (im)patiently for PTI's release of 2011 Christmas stamps.  (I wish they would do a release in July; you know the theme: Christmas in July.)


At first I picked three colors of cardstock: kraft, white and aqua mist.  But when I created a prototype using Tag # 1, I realized that I needed pattern paper under it. 


So I went through my Chrismas papers and found this:

I changed my colors to white & Spring Rain.  Here is my final product. 

The snowflake is stamped with Momento Summer Sky. You can barely see it, but I also inked around the circle to break up the white on white. I didn't stamp a sentiment on the outside.  I am hoping that there will be something in the 2011 Christmas release that I will be able to use.

After I made the card, I made a 2nd one using Enchanted Evening as the background cardstock.  The snowflake is stamped in Fresh Snow. I added pearls this time.  Even though I like the first card, I think the 2nd card is much prettier. Perhaps it is the sharp contrast. What do you think?

A close up view of the snowflake.       

Supplies:
Cardstock: White, Spring Rain, Enchanted Evening
Stamps: Rustic Snowflake
Dies: Tag #1, Limitless Labels
Misc: Spring Rain satin ribbon, Hero Arts Gemstones, K& C Speciality Paper, pearls.